Twisted Reality

Frustrated with all the pictures of Isobelle that I've been posting, Ophelia, the Dowager Queen of Winter Street, demanded some cover time. Fat, lazy...ugh, royal... thing wouldn't even sit up to have her picture taken. She knows she rocks.

Weigh-in day went okay for me - 3 more pounds down this week. Poor Princess lost nothing... gee, too bad! I'm really not gloating - that's a lie, yes I am. Unfortunately, she's a type A personality with an extremely competitive edge, next week she'll kill herself to beat me.




Guilty pleasures - for some people those are alcohol, chocolate, Harlequin romance books. My guilty pleasure is reality shows. I say this with a bag over my head, because, jeesh, even I know they're ridiculous, but I can't help myself! I started thinking about what I'd do for money when I was a kid because of a song, the title of which I can't remember. The conversation came up again when that movie with Demi Moore came out - the one in which Robert Redford offers her a million dollars to sleep with him once and just talking about it breaks up her marriage. Pap was horrified when I said I'd definitely sleep with Robert Redford (in his prime, that's how old that movie is) for a million dollars. Quite frankly, I'd do it for free. Morals or no morals - Robert Redford! I've thought he was amazingly cute since Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid came out. But I digress....

In examining all the outrageous things I'd do for a million dollars, I definitely have to include sleeping with Robert Redford. I wouldn't eat anything weird, I wouldn't hurt, mame or kill any person or animal for any amount of money, I wouldn't denounce God or my family, or get naked in public. About anything else is fair game. Thus, my fascination with reality shows. It started with Survivor, then Big Brother came along, quickly followed by American Idol, America's Next Top Model, The Biggest Loser, Hell's Kitchen, Treasure Hunt ... even old Ted Nugent has got in on the action. I've watched people competing to be Donald Trump's apprentice, trying to win jobs as designers, decorators and the next Martha Stuart. It's absolutely embarrassing how much interest I have in watching people compete with each other for money.

The intelligent woman inside me groaned vociferously when I tuned in to any of these shows. To quiet her down, I had no choice but to rationalize my way to an acceptable answer for the old girl. It goes something like this:

I'm a writer living in a very small town. Where else, in just one short hour, can I gather the necessary information I need for constructing a variety of interesting and diverse characters for my books? These shows are a study of human interaction, man's inhumanity to man, the frailty or strength of the human character. Okay, it's lame, but it's my story and.... you know the rest. Gotta go, Project Runway is on....